Many of us feel deeply connected to the generations of our family which have gone before us. And therefore Mother’s Day is a wonderful time to commemorate and celebrate not only our own mother, but the mothers who came before her as well.
This was the intent of my customer when she brought me 3 rings with diamonds: Her mothers wedding ring, her grandmothers wedding ring the ring her grandmother got, when she had given birth to her mother. All rings were in a rather bad state: They had never been built sturdy and the wear and tear of many years’ worth of daily use had taken their toll. They weren’t even really worth patching up again, unlike the diamonds, which of cause had withstood many decades of love and daily life.
Therefore my customer had made a decision: She wanted me to create a white gold ring which brought together all the diamonds and yellow gold from the rings into one, grand piece. She had an overall idea of an S-shaped design and was most particular about making sure that the diamonds were set in the right genealogical succession.
Drawing such a piece is always great fun for both of us. “Paper is grateful” as we say, because anything goes and everything can be changed. This is a great tool in order to test a number of ideas and varieties before settling on a final design. I always start with a pencil and then outline the design a bit more precisely with a fine liner. I then often touch up with coloured pencils in order to mark the different metals and gems, which also makes it easier for my customers to envision their future piece of jewellery.
This was how we worked together – my customer talking and me drawing and she quickly settled on a design terminating in a 5 mm beautiful violet blue tanzanite. She chose this gem because it displays one of her favourite colours, but it also was meant to have another built in function: The tanzanite was to have the exact same size as the diamond in her wedding ring, because my customer wanted her new ring to be prepared for the next generation as well: Once she has passed on and her daughter has inherited the ring of my customer as well as her wedding ring, she wanted the diamond from that wedding ring to be set instead of the tanzanite. This way her diamond would take its rightful place amongst the mothers of her family, enabling the 4th generation of mothers in a straight line to carry on the legacy.
I love working with projects like this and every time feel somewhat humbled and honoured by the trust my customers place in me when handing over their treasured heirlooms. I always take great care to execute the design as close to the emotional intent of my customer, which in the case of this ring meant, that I had to carefully sort and store the individual diamonds in labelled bags in order to set the right ones in the right place.
I experience an amazing collaboration process when working on the design with Karin.
She immediately understood what I wanted,
and subsequently I have received a lot of very positive comments on my new ring.
Gitten Hammerberg
I am rather proud of the final result and it is my hope that Gitten will smile and fondly remember her foremothers whenever she wears this exquisite ring. If you would like for me to redesign some of YOUR inherited jewellery, feel free to order a design meeting (in my shop in Copenhagen or online via Skype or mail)
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